Pair to breach ‘Border’

Grais script examines the rise of drug and human smuggling

Mace Neufeld has optioned Michael Grais’ script “Border War,” about crime along the U.S.-Mexican border. Neufeld and Grais will produce.

The action drama centers on two U.S. Border Patrol agents — a seasoned veteran and a recruit — struggling to deal with the rise of drug and human smuggling and the corruption on both sides of the border.

To research the script, Grais spent over a month in a border town in Arizona, embedding himself with the Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Humane Borders, among other groups, and traveling back and forth over the border.

“The situation is way more complex than I ever would have imagined or would have gotten from the news,” he said. “It’s far more violent than I ever suspected.”

Neufeld became interested in the script when he was struck by coverage of the border conflict in the newspapers. “The same day I was sent Michael’s script, the headlines in the L.A. Times were about the border problems,” Neufeld said. “I was sitting there reading this screenplay, and it was the first time I’d seen anything that dealt with the immigration, border patrol and drug cartel problems, which are all mixed up.”

Grais wrote and produced the first two “Poltergeist” movies and produced “Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers.”

Neufeld’s producing credits include “Clear and Present Danger” and “The Sum of All Fears.”